CBS, Back at Full Strength, Wins the Night

With its carriage dispute with Time Warner Cable finally resolved and the blackout lifted, CBS celebrated Monday night by winning the ratings battle against its broadcast rivals, based on Nielsen overnights for the key 18-49 demo.

TVbytheNumbers.com reports that the Tiffany Network was paced by its summer hit "Under the Dome," which ticked up one-tenth of a point from last week in viewers 18-49 to a 2.6 average, easily making it the top broadcast show of the night. The rest of CBS’s prime-time lineup consisted of comedy reruns, with the best number being a 1.4 for "Mike & Molly."

Second-place NBC had good news of its own, a season high for its two-hour "American Ninja Warrior," which rose 6% from a week ago to notch a 1.8 average in 18-49. "Siberia" continued to lag behind at 10 p.m., but did rise 17% to a 0.7.

ABC’s only fresh program, "Mistresses," surged 30% in the 18-49 demo to a 1.3. Fox aired all repeats and finished well off the pace.

For prime time overall, CBS won the 18-49 demo with a 1.6 average rating, followed by NBC (1.4 average), Univision (1.2), ABC (1.1) and Fox (0.7). CBS finished well ahead of the pack in total viewers, averaging 6.8 million to top NBC (4.3 million), ABC (4.2 million), Univision (3.2 million) and Fox (1.8 million).